TECUMSEH — The Tecumseh High School Symphony Orchestra has scheduled a special preview and "thank you" concert for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 9.

The concert will take place at the Tecumseh Center for the Arts, 400 N. Maumee St. Admission is free, though donations will be accepted to support the orchestra as it prepares for another special concert. It is one of three school orchestras invited to perform Jan. 18 at the Michigan Music Conference (MMC). Besides Tecumseh, the Ann Arbor Pioneer High School Symphony Orchestra and a middle school orchestra from Ann Arbor are scheduled to perform.

The three-day conference is at the DeVos Center in Grand Rapids and features clinics, concerts and presentations to help music educators with professional development. Most of the 43 members of the Tecumseh orchestra will perform at the concert, said Amy Marr, who, with Michael Bough, heads the music department at Tecumseh schools.

Marr is a finalist for band/orchestra director of the year at the MMC.

The Jan. 9 concert at the TCA will feature the premiere of a piece of music commissioned by the Friends of TSO, a nonprofit organization formed to support the symphony program. Bob Phillips, who was the teacher when the TSO program began, wrote the piece, "Aspire: A Dream Fulfilled."

According to a news release, the sheet music contains a dedication that reads: "Commissioned by the Elizabeth Ruthruff Wilson Foundation in memory of Elizabeth, and dedicated to the vision of Theresa Powers, the students of the Tecumseh Schools Orchestra program and their directors, Amy Marr and Michael Bough."

The music will be added to the published catalog of Alfred Publishing Co. and available to any orchestra throughout the country. Powers, who has been with Friends of TSO since its inception, said she was flattered.

"I am very touched to have been included in this dedication," she wrote in an email. "Ten years of work ... it was worth it all."

At the Jan. 9 concert, Marr will be the guest conductor, with senior violinist Kali Snead the featured soloist. Following the performance, donations will be accepted to help defray the costs of sending the orchestra to the conference.

Along with the specially commissioned piece, the orchestra will perform music by Edvard Grieg, Brian Balmages, Duke Ellington, Gustav Holst, Max Bruch and Eric Whitacre at both of its concerts.

The panel of judges who selected performers for the Michigan Music Conference concert included representatives from the Michigan Band and Orchestra Association, Michigan Music Educators Association and the Michigan Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. The 40-minute performance is at 1:15 p.m. Jan. 18 in the DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids.